


Christmas Countdown

by writinginthedust



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-27 01:54:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15014099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writinginthedust/pseuds/writinginthedust
Summary: This was a gift for greetingsfromthenorthsea for the Everlark Birthday Gifts and they requested Everlark with toddlers. Here it is!





	Christmas Countdown

Katniss pressed the heel of her palms into her eyes and took a deep breath in. Little lights fuzzed behind her eyelids and she took a moment to observe the patterns they made. 

Doing this was still preferable to watching Frozen for the third time that day. She had a thirty second respite before she heard her name being called from down the hall. Well, not her actual name but the one that she went by most commonly these days.

“Mama!” 

Katniss let out a wavering sigh. “Mama’s in the bathroom,” she called out. 

A thump hit the back of the closed door. “Mama,” the voice called again. “Mama...” and Katniss could hear an edge of desperation sink into their tone and could just picture the look of utmost injury on their face at the bathroom door being shut. 

With another sigh, Katniss opened the door. It was Ellis, just as she thought. Her son looked up at her and smiled. Katniss couldn’t help but beam back. How could she not? Not when her youngest son looked up at her like she hung the moon. 

She bent down and planted a kiss on top of his little golden head. “You get that look from your father,” she told him but he just kept grinning, no clue what she was talking about. 

“Mama needs the bathroom,” she said standing up and turning around to the toilet but she knew trying to explain privacy to an eighteen-month-old, and the world’s most needy eighteen-month-old at that, was a completely redundant exercise. Instead she just abandoned all sense of dignity and sat down to pee in front of him. Again. 

Ellis wandered over to her as she sat and pressed a chubby hand against her naked knee. His grin was a million dollars, like watching his mother peeing in the downstairs toilet was his most favourite thing to do. Katniss was beginning to wonder if it was. “You know,” she said, reaching out to touch one of his waves, enjoying the soft feeling between her fingertips, “it’s going to be really weird if you’re still into this when you’re eighteen.”

The sounds of ‘Let It Go’ travelled down the hallway and through the open door. The powerful vocals of Idina Menzel were joined by the equally powerful vocals of Daisy Mellark who obviously felt that her love of Elsa could not be known by the entire household unless she was projecting it at her highest volume. 

“Mama...” Ellis whinged around his dummy. 

“I know baby, but she’ll grow out of it in around ten years or so.”

Ellis tried to clamber up onto her lap but she had to hold him back, “No, no. Not while Mama’s peeing.”

“Mama....” the whinge got louder. 

There was a shuffling down the hallway and a new body appeared in the doorframe. “Alright sweetheart.”

Katniss refrained from rolling her eyes. She was going to kill Haymitch. For reasons unknown to mankind, her other eighteen-month-old son had emulated their next-door neighbour out of some misplaced adoration and that involved parroting back ninety percent of what he said. Hearing Ellis say ‘Mama’ a thousand times a day was nothing compared to the quantity of that phrase coming out of the eldest twin’s mouth. 

At least Jesse wasn’t helping himself to their liquor cabinet. Katniss looked over at where her eldest son was standing and raised an eyebrow. Why was that boy always naked? 

Jesse sauntered in, clearly wanting to join in on the commotion. “Baby,” Katniss began, “where are your clothes?” Ellis took her moment of distraction as an opportunity to climb on her lap and did so with heft, grabbing at her top. Katniss manoeuvred him so that he was on one leg. 

Jesse just shrugged, “Dunno,” and Katniss felt the urge to murder Haymitch rise up in her again. Her eldest boy looked at her with his wide grey eyes, eyes that he shared with his twin and his mother and Katniss could see the question whirring in them. 

“Come on,” she sighed but before she had even spoken Jesse was already climbing up onto the other leg. She sat there, tying to pee, with the bathroom door wide open and with a toddler on each leg. One naked and mildly fidgety and the other one clothed but extremely fidgety. 

“What’s happening?” All three heads turned to the door where a three-year-old Elsa wannabe was standing with her hands on her hips, clearly disgruntled as though she was being left out of a magnificent party. 

Katniss hadn’t heard the singing stop or any footsteps walk down the hall. The eldest Mellark child had inherited Katniss’ light tread which had already resulted in some very embarrassing situations, especially when she would just randomly turn up in Katniss and Peeta’s bedroom. 

“Mama’s trying to pee, Dais,” Katniss told her but was met with a petulant frown. Daisy stomped into the room, red wellies under her princess dress. 

“I want to go outside.”

“Not right now,” Katniss said, “let Mama finish using the bathroom.”

The Elsa crown that slumped down over a head of black hair made for a pitiful sight but the bright blue eyes that stared up at Katniss’ face started filling with tears which only made it more pitiful. 

Oh shit, Katniss thought. They were about to be the lucky guests to a proper royal tantrum. 

“Off,” yelled Daisy and she grabbed at Ellis’ foot and tried to yank him from Katniss’ leg. This resulted in Ellis grabbing onto his mothers’ t-shirt with extra force, stretching the fabric. He began to wail.

“Daisy!” Katniss admonished her. “Don’t do that to your brother!”  
Daisy’s eyes filled even harder and then she opened her mouth, a matching wail echoing around the bathroom. 

“Horsey!” Jesse was filled with sudden, exuberant delight and began to bounce on Katniss’ leg as though he had just realised he should be making maximum use of this opportunity. 

Katniss groaned and threw her head back. 

Four days to go. 

****

“I’ll be back home earlier tomorrow,” she heard Peeta say, “I’ve managed to get cover at the bakery for the afternoon.”

A large hand palmed the back of her head and smoothed down her hair. As his hand travelled past her neck she could feel his fingers gently massage some of the knots he found there. She sighed into the pillow where she had been laying, face down, since putting the children to bed. 

Katniss turned her head and looked up at her husband and they made eye contact, offering each other tired smiles. “Are you sure?” she asked him. “Won’t they need you there?”

Peeta shrugged, his fingers threading through her un-braided hair, the soft tugging motions relaxing her scalp. She could feel her eyes grow heavy.

“I think you need me here,” he said with a grin but Katniss could see the dark circles under his eyes. The weeks leading up to Christmas at the bakeries were the worst. They owned three now, which was wonderful, but exhausting. Peeta managed one of the bakeries on a daily basis whilst the other two stores had managers. Unfortunately, one of those had unexpectedly quit a week ago so Peeta was dividing up his time between the Seam and Merchant branches whilst trying to check in on the third in the Hob. 

“Come here,” she said and reached out her hand to touch his face. The rough stubble on his jaw scratched against her hand and she had a sudden desire to feel it scratching somewhere else. Peeta turned his face into her hand and kissed her palm and she tugged him down so he lay beside her. 

They faced each other on the bed, his blue eyes, so like their daughters, looking into her grey ones. She smiled to herself, she was right about what she thought earlier, Peeta looked at her like she hung the moon. 

“What are you thinking about?” he asked, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. 

“Oh, I don’t know,” she replied. “That one of our sons has slightly voyeuristic bathroom tendencies, that the other is a miniature Haymitch in the making with a dash of nudism thrown in and that our daughter won’t be happy until she has full run of the house.”

Peeta grinned, “Is Jesse still ‘alright sweet-hearting’ you?”

“Twenty times today. I counted. Which was probably thirty times less than Ellis yelling ‘Mama.’”

Peeta yawned and rolled over onto his back, tugging Katniss with him so that she was pulled against his chest. “Its because you’re Ellis’ most favourite person.” He smoothed a hand down Katniss spine. “I don’t blame him, because you’re my most favourite person.”

“You don’t follow me into the bathroom every opportunity you get.”

“Oh, but if I only could!”

“Pervert,” she tapped his chest with her hand but giggled. 

“In fact, I feel like engaging in some slightly voyeuristic bathroom tendencies myself. Fancy taking a shower?” His eyebrows rose suggestively. 

“So that you can watch or join?”

“Hmmm,” he trailed off, eyes looking thoughtful. “We’ll start with the first so I can judge you on your lathering technique and then we’ll move on to the latter so I can show you how it’s properly done.” 

Katniss sat up on her elbow to look at him, her black hair falling down like a curtain. They were both tired; she felt it and he looked it. They should probably both just get some much-needed sleep. 

She grinned at him, “Fine. But I’m not very good at lathering. I’m going to need lots of training.”

Peeta grinned back and pulled her mouth down to his. 

****

“Oh god.” Katniss was face down on the bed again but this time she was trying to pull the pillow up over her ears. She had been woken up by Peeta’s four am alarm and the sound of wailing, both occurring simultaneously. Neither were welcome. 

“I’ll get him,” Peeta’s voice, thick and muffled with sleep, spoke out beside her. 

“No,” she grunted. “You’ve got to get ready for work. It’ll be me he wants anyway.”

Peeta managed a comforting pat on her head, the best he could do at the ungodly hour, and Katniss felt the bed shift and the floorboard creak as he shuffled off to the bathroom. 

“Ugh,” she groaned, the volume muffled by the pillow before she flipped onto her back and swung her legs over the side. Zombie Mama was all she could manage. 

Out of all her children it was Ellis that was the clingiest and it was Ellis that would only be soothed by his mother. Both Katniss and Peeta knew it was a short phase he would grow out of but that didn’t mean that Katniss wasn’t counting down the days until he did.   
He was standing in his crib, fat tears dripping down his round face when she entered. “Hey, baby,” she murmured softly to him, mindful of the other sleeping person in the room. Ellis’ loud sobs begun to quiet immediately but the tears still fell as he blinked. 

“Oh, look at that lip,” she whispered. His bottom lip trembled as she tiptoed across the carpet and picked him up from his crib. He was soft and warm, his sleep shirt riding up to reveal a chubby little tummy and a popped-out bellybutton. Ellis buried his face in her neck and she planted a kiss on his head. 

Despite his grizzling, he was so fricking adorable. “Ssshh,” she soothed and stroked down his hair, its waves sticking up in random directions. “Let’s go downstairs.” 

Katniss glanced at where Jesse was sleeping in the other crib. He could sleep through any journey, his sisters’ singing and his brothers’ screaming and for that she would be eternally grateful. Somehow, he had managed to wiggle his way out of his sleeping clothes and night time Huggies and was completely nude and sleeping like a starfish, legs and arms spread as wide as possible. Katniss shook her head and grinned. 

As she walked past she reached through the bars and gently touched his foot, rubbing the pad of her thumb against the arch. Jesse didn’t move at all, just smacked his lips a few times and grunted. 

She grinned again, making her way into the hallway. Katniss poked her head into Daisy’s room to find her in the same state as Jesse, fast asleep with dark hair splayed over her lemon pillow and drool dribbling from the corner of her mouth.

In the kitchen she put Ellis in his highchair and turned on the Christmas tree they had at the side. The lights danced across the countertops and ceiling and as he watched, transfixed, Katniss took the moment to brew her and Peeta a coffee. 

Heavy steps thudded down the stairs and Katniss thanked the stars that it was another thing two out of three of her children could sleep through. 

“Morning,” Peeta said, his voice sounding less thick and much chirpier. He planted a kiss on the top of Ellis’ head, his blonde hair falling over his son’s identical locks, and Ellis grinned up at him, momentarily broken from the Christmas lights spell. “And morning to Mama,” he said, standing next to her at the counter and gave her a deep kiss. 

“Mmm,” she replied, “I have morning breath.”

“Ah, I don’t care.” Peeta left hand reached for the coffee as his right traced down her back and curved over her ass, giving it a rub. 

“You are far too awake,” she told him but smiled anyway. 

“And you are far too irresistible,” he winked and gave her ass cheek a squeeze. 

She looked back at the highchair but Ellis had already gone back to being mildly hypnotised. Now, if only he would continue that through the day. 

****

Three days to go.

Katniss wondered if daytime drinking was always a bad thing. Haymitch managed it on a daily basis so she figured it couldn’t be that bad but then again, Haymitch wasn’t trying to manage three under-threes. 

“No, no, no!” She reached forward and managed to grab Ellis with one arm and hold the tree upright with the other. He’d gone running towards it with a gleeful squeal and yanked at one of the lower branches. It teetered towards him and Katniss managed to dash in before he got a face full of tree. Not that he cared. Ellis let out a wail and dropped through her arm like a stone, his arms outstretched in outrage. 

“Oh, Ellis,” Katniss uttered as he rolled on the floor. “Mama couldn’t let you pull the tree down.” He continued to lay face down on the floor and sobbed into the rug. Katniss wondered how it would look if she joined him. 

There was an irritated sigh from behind her and she turned around to see Daisy sat on the couch like a queen holding court. Jesse sat next to her, his finger up his nose as he swung his legs off the side. “Mama move,” she said. “I’m trying to watch Elsa.”

“Dais,” Katniss’ voice was stern, “you don’t tell people to move. It’s rude.”

“But Mama...” 

“No buts Daisy, we’ve spoken about being rude before.” Her and Peeta had been told by Daisy’s preschool teacher that their daughter was a confident, outspoken child who enjoyed singing, talking, drawing and domineering. Both her and Peeta had winced, especially as they were told that the last talent often resulted in a level of curtness that wasn’t always endearing. 

“I don’t want you to tell Santa,” Daisy said and a lip begun to quiver. 

Katniss sighed and knelt in front of her daughter, putting her hand on her knee. “Mama needed to stop Ellis pulling down the tree.”

The lip still quivered. “You just needed to wait until Mama was done.” 

The lip still quivered. Katniss sighed. Normally there would be more conversation about rudeness and manners but she had been up since four and it was hours from nap time and that was even if she could even get them to nap. “We’ll watch some more Frozen and then have some lunch, ok?”

“Ok,” Daisy’s lip instantly stopped trembling pathetically and Katniss couldn’t help but think she just got played. 

“Ok,” she repeated with a sigh and stood up, careful not to tread on her still wailing son. She bent down and picked him up, balancing him on her lip before wiping away his tears. The doorbell rang and Katniss took a quick look around. One child in her arms and two on the couch. Fine. 

The delivery man just needed a signature for the parcel but all it took was a minute out of sight. A crash resounded from the lounge and Katniss muttered, ‘shit,’ before she could think. Running back in she saw the tree upturned on its side, baubles and ornaments strewn all over the floor. 

Jesse stood beside the tree, a strand of glittery tinsel in his hand. He looked up at her with a guilty expression, “Uh-oh Mama. Uh-oh.”

****

“This is the cutest thing I’ve ever come home to.” 

“Shut up,” Katniss murmured but there was no bite in her tone. She opened an eyelid to see Peeta standing at the end of their bed, grinning. “You have no idea what I’ve done in order to achieve this.”

“Nyquil?” Peeta offered up with a smile and Katniss rolled her eyes. 

“I wish it had even been that easy.”

Earlier Katniss had stood in the doorway staring at the downed tree, with a sobbing toddler on one hip, a shamefaced toddler who looked like he was about to start crying plus another toddler who huffed, again, at her movie being interrupted and felt her eye begin to twitch. 

“Ok,” she had said. “We’re all going to have lunch. And then we’re going to put the tree back up and then we’re going to play a game.” And then, she had thought, I’m going to make sure you take a nap because dear god, Mama needs one. 

Somehow, by a Christmas miracle, they had eaten with minimal fuss, messily slapped the decorations back on the branches and ran around outside for an hour until their faces were pink with the cold. A warm, milky drink later and they were all piled on Katniss and Peeta’s bed with Katniss squished in between Daisy and Jesse as Ellis lay on her torso. 

Peeta yawned and ran a flour covered hand through his hair. “Do you think?” he asked. “That there’s room for Daddy?”

Katniss smiled at him, “There’s always room.”

Peeta sighed and slid onto the bed, carefully making sure not to jostle the small, sleeping bodies. He leaned forward and gave Katniss a soft kiss before resting back. A large hand stretched out and stroked the nearest child’s hair. 

“A parcel arrived for you today,” she told him. “Looked like your mother’s handwriting.”

Peeta grunted and closed his eyes. “Awesome.” 

“I wonder if she’s included one of her ‘infamous’ letters.”

“Probably.” 

“Maybe she’ll suggest a vasectomy again.”

Peeta groaned, “The last thing I have ever wanted in life is my mother putting that much thought into what happens to my penis.”

Katniss shifted slightly, the weight of Ellis beginning to press down on her. He stirred and she smoothed a hand over his warm back. “She does seem unnaturally concerned.”

“She needs to mind her own business.”

“Well she thinks we are her business. She thinks we can barely cope with three children.”

Peeta cracked an eye open and frowned. “Just because she couldn’t, doesn’t mean we can’t.”

“They all happened in rather quick succession...” Katniss whispered, trailing off.

“Hey,” Peeta said, his voice low and warm. “We’re doing great. This is just Christmas madness. And besides,” he stretched and his jumper rode up revealing a slither of skin and a dark blonde happy trail, “it’s not my fault you can’t keep your hands off of me.”

“That’s not true,” she said with a blush and tore her eyes away. 

“Sure,” he said with a low chuckle and leant forward again to place another soft kiss on her lips. 

There was a little giggle and they both looked down to see Daisy’s wide-open eyes looking at them from where she was curled into Katniss’ side. “Ew,” she giggled again, “kissing.”

Peeta raised an eyebrow. “You think this is gross, do you? Well then...” and with a practiced move he sat up and lifted his daughter from the bed, swung her over to his chest, dangled her backwards and began planting kisses onto her face. Daisy shrieked with delight, her legs kicking in the air. “Noooo,” she laughed, her small hands fisting clumps of Peeta’s hair. 

That did it. The two boys were awake, their grey eyes wide and looking momentarily confused before they realised the source of the noise was coming from their sister. 

“Yeahhhh!” yelled out Jesse and Katniss watched as he stood and launched himself at Peeta. Ellis sat up on Katniss’ belly and just stared at the rumble. Peeta fell back onto the bed with Daisy on his chest as Jesse continued the attack on his neck. 

“What do you say?” Katniss said to her youngest, over the sound of the shrieks and yells. “If we can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” And with that Katniss lifted Ellis into her arms and threw herself into the mix. 

****

There had been more snowfall overnight and it had settled onto the ground, blanketing everything with a soft, white powder. Katniss loved how it looked; the way it glittered and sparkled in the winter sun. 

She’d managed to sleep in a bit later than usual although she still woke to say goodbye to Peeta. He wasn’t able to be home early today but that was ok, she was planning on taking the kids to him. All three had managed to sleep a bit later as well before she was eventually woken by a completely nude Jesse who somehow had managed to get naked and get out of his crib. 

He had stood in front of her, with his blonde, unruly waves of hair sticking out in all directions and his chubby little tummy with his little popped out belly button on show, demanding breakfast. 

Katniss had grabbed him and covered his face with kisses, just as Peeta had done with Daisy the day before. I want to keep you all with me for always, she had thought and then proceeded to try and convince them to eat their eggs before they could play outdoors. 

“Alright sweetheart,” the gravelly voice called out over the fence. “How’s mama hen doing with all her chicks?”

Katniss turned from where she stood watching Ellis scoop snow into his mouth and from where Daisy was frowning with snowman building concentration to look at their neighbour. There was an exuberant cry from her right. “Haymitch!” Jesse called and begun to stomp on over. 

“We’re clucking along,” she told him. “I’ll be taking them to see Peeta later.”

“The boy still working?” Haymitch asked and Katniss nodded. 

“Yeah, it’s a busy time.”

“Well if you need some ‘quality time’ together, I’ll reluctantly take the rugrats from you.”

Katniss looked over at Haymitch but he was grinning down at Jesse who in turn, was grinning back. Reluctantly? Not a chance. When they first moved in with a new-born Daisy they introduced themselves to Haymitch who made some comment about children and noise but Katniss had seen the way his face softened when he looked at the baby.

Peeta had a way of making people open up, a charm that Katniss didn’t possess and he had told her that he’d discovered Haymitch had once been married. Something had gone wrong when she was giving birth to their first baby and Haymitch had lost both. That’s why he drinks a lot, Peeta had said. That, and I think he’s lonely. 

“Last time you took the ‘rugrat’s,’” Katniss replied, “Jesse came back with a whole new phrase and Daisy believed it was fine to draw on walls.”

Haymitch shrugged, “Not my fault if I encourage creative expression.”

“Hmm,” she muttered. “You still coming over Christmas Day?”  
There was a groan from Haymitch and she watched as he lifted a glass filled with deep amber liquid to his mouth and took a long sip. “If I must sweetheart. Though I can think of better ways to spend my day than playing dress up.”

“You looked adorable last time you were Anna.” 

Haymitch shot her a look and she winked at him. He would come over on Christmas Day this year like he had last year, and the year before and the year before that. He would moan about it but would be there before nine in the morning with arms filled with presents, just like last year, and the year before and the year before that. 

And besides, he looked rather fetching wearing a dress around his neck.

****

 

Just two more days. That was what she repeated in her head as she bundled the children into the car. Get through today and tomorrow and then it’s Christmas Day. It will all be normal then. 

Getting them back inside had been a monumental task. Jesse had uncharacteristically started to cry when Haymitch had gone back indoors. “But baby,” she had told him, “it’s getting cold and we’re going indoors too.” 

That had been met with an open-mouthed wail as tears splashed down his face. “HAYMIIIIIIITCH!”

Ellis had been so shocked that he paused his snow eating to stare. Then, rather characteristically, joined in. 

Daisy just carried on patting snow onto her snowman, used to both brothers by now. Katniss took a deep breath. Soothing wasn’t working. Bribery wasn’t working. Nothing was working until she mentioned that they were going to go see Daddy. 

It worked for Jesse who immediately stopped the waterworks at the thought of going to the bakery. He just gets bored, Katniss thought. He sees me and Ellis and Daisy all day, he just wants new faces. The bakery was one of the best places to take him, not just because he got to see Daddy or eat the treats but because the bakery girls gushed over the children and cooed over their blonde waves and said how pretty they all were. Jesse would grin and blow bubbles at them in his way of flirting. 

After the twenty-minute drive Katniss finally pulled into a space outside the bakery. Peeta was at the Merchant site today and though it wasn’t her favourite site (the Hob premises held that place in her heart) she had to admit it was the prettiest. 

Merchant Square was the ‘posh’ side of town, the place where the original Mellark bakery resided back in the 1800’s and it still held the charm of red bricked buildings, candy striped awnings and large shop windows with colourful displays. 

None were more colourful than the current Mellark bakery display with piles of macarons, both in pastel and vibrant shades, the Christmas cakes with reindeer and Santa’s and cake-pops designed to look like baubles and Christmas puddings. 

Katniss piled the twins into their double buggy and steered it with one hand whilst holding Daisy’s hand with the other. All three of them were wide eyed at what they could see and Katniss felt a little of her Christmas madness desperation melt away. 

When they stepped into the bakery it was Rue that greeted them with a cheery smile and a wave and Katniss looked into the buggy to see Ellis stare and Jesse wave back with his trademark cheeky grin. Any minute now the bubbles would start. Daisy gave a bashful wave and crept closer to Katniss, pressing her face into Katniss’ leg. 

“Hi guys!” Rue exclaimed. “Peeta’s out back, let me go get him.” 

Katniss said her thanks and then started to get the kids settled into the seating booth at the front of the store. It didn’t take long before she heard the heavy tread of footsteps and a joyful, “Well if it isn’t my favourite people!”

There were at least two squeals and Katniss glanced up from settling Ellis to see Daisy run over to Peeta with Jesse hot on her heels. They both grabbed at him and buried their faces in his legs. With a pretend groan Peeta managed to swing them both up into his arms, one on each side, and he walked over. “Hey bud,” he said affectionately to Ellis and bent down to kiss his head. Then he turned to her and his voice dropped a slight notch, “Hey Mama.” 

He placed a kiss on her lips and she heard Daisy giggle again. Both Peeta and the bakery smelt deliciously like cinnamon and ginger and a hint a spice. If they weren’t in public and surrounded by their offspring she probably would have stuck her nose in his neck and taken a deep breath. 

Instead she offered him a demure, ‘hey’ but felt a rush of heat flood to her face as he winked at her. Maybe he was right, maybe she just couldn’t keep her hands off him. That would explain their family situation. Katniss snapped out of her small reverie to hear Peeta speaking. “...and if you sit down then you can have one.”

Rue brought over some drinks to the table and what looked like some cake-pops. Before she left to go back to the counter she squeezed Jesse’s hand and gushed about how cute he was. She received a shit eating grin from the toddler in question. 

“What is it that they can have?” Katniss asked as Peeta placed Jesse and Daisy into the seats opposite. They both reached over and grabbed at what Rue had put on the table while Ellis just scrunched a napkin in his fists. 

“Only my finest bake for my finest customers,” and he winked at her again but this time Katniss was more worried about the excessive levels of sugar their children were about to consume. 

“I don’t think they need more sweets...” she began but a gasp from Daisy cut her off. 

“Look Mama,” she said, “It’s like Elsa!” A sparkly ice blue cake ball with tiny snowflakes sprinkled over the surface was being waved around on a stick. “It’s so pretty,” and her large blue eyes shone with awe. 

Jesse’s was already in his mouth and half chewed, dribble coating his chin as he tried to make eyes at Rue behind the counter. Ellis now held one in his hand mushing it into paste but didn’t seemed inclined to eat it. At least one of her children wasn’t a crazed sugar monster. 

“This one is for Mama,” Peeta said and handed one that was wrapped and sticking out of his pocket. It was a pair of Santa legs sticking out of a chimney. Peeta leant in and whispered in her ear, “If you want, I’ll slip down your chimney later.”

Katniss laughed and rolled her eyes good naturedly. That morning before he left for work he told her he was looking forward to stuffing her stocking. Sometimes her husband acted more like a horny teenager than a thirty something father of three. It was the sugar. He always got like this in the days before Christmas. 

Peeta’s cheeky smile stretched across his face and highlighted his dimples. It was plain to see where their eldest son got it from. Katniss glanced down at the table and the three preoccupied children before leaning in to whisper in his ear. “Play your cards right and I’ll be licking your candy cane.”

****

“No,” she muttered to herself as she scrubbed the mix that had splattered onto the kitchen floor, “I do not want to build a sodding snowman.” 

Frozen was on again. Which was fine because it gave Katniss a brief respite from an over tired, over excited three-year-old who – in a moment of hyperactivity – tore around the kitchen and knocked over the bowl of cake mix. Katniss had watched in horror as it spun into the air and crashed down onto the floor, milk, flour and eggs slopping onto the tiles. 

“Uh-oh,” Jesse had said and helpfully came over to stand in the goop in order to point it out whilst Ellis, startled by the crash, began to cry. 

At that point Katniss just released a long groan and closed her eyes. Santa was coming tonight and they were all too excited to sleep which made them increasingly more irritable. Their lack of sleep was making her increasingly more irritable as well and so, after the bowl hit the ground, she shunted them into the den just to get them away from her. 

It was just one more day, she thought, and then it was Christmas and soon all would be right with the world once again. 

The cloth she was dragging against the tiles was now completely saturated so she reached for another one. Her tiredness wasn’t just due to the children though, she knew that, but had been compounded by other factors. One of those factors was answering the phone early this morning to Peeta’s mother who demanded that she speak to her son at once. Whilst Katniss waited for Peeta to come downstairs in what was the longest thirty seconds of her life, she was admonished by her mother in law for ‘keeping her baby boy away from her.’ 

After three children, five years of marriage and three years of dating the matriarch of the Mellark family had never warmed to Katniss. In truth, Katniss had never warmed to her either but it still stung that after eight years and three grandchildren that she couldn’t view Katniss as anything other than a gold digging opportunist. 

Mother Mellark was at least all sweetness and light for those grandchildren though - even though she thought that Katniss and Peeta shouldn’t have actually had any – and for that Katniss was grateful. Katniss and her own mother’s relationship struggled after Katniss’ dad died and then when Prim died a deep gulf appeared between the two that they could never bridge. What made it sadder was that neither wanted to. 

That meant that Katniss and Peeta’s children grew up with limited grandparents and the ones that they did have either hated Katniss or were indifferent to her. That included Peeta’s father who was kind but too hen pecked to do anything about anything. At least they have Haymitch, she thought and wondered how needy it meant she was that she had actively encouraged their older, alcoholic neighbour to bond with her children.

At least, she thought again, he loves them. And then as it often happened this time of year another thought crept in. Prim would have loved them too. It was that thought that was the most sobering. It was that thought that had Katniss kneeling on the tiles and staring at the mess on the floor. Her chin started to wobble and she wondered if this was where Ellis had gotten it from. 

She was so focused on her thoughts that Katniss didn’t hear the footsteps until two little bare feet appeared in her eyeline. Not that she would have heard them anyway, that child was a ninja. 

“Mama?” 

Katniss shook away her memories and looked at Daisy’s worried face directly in front of her. Her black hair spilled over her shoulders where the Elsa dress, which had managed to get hit by the mix, was sliding off. Daisy buried her fingers into the blue material and twisted whilst looking at Katniss with large, concerned blue eyes. 

“Mama?” she asked again. 

“Hey Dais,” Katniss said with a gentle smile. “Mama’s just cleaning up.”

“I’m sorry,” Daisy replied. “I didn’t mean to.”

“I know you didn’t, it’s ok.” And then because her daughter was obsessed with making sure that she was still on the ‘nice list’ Katniss added, “Santa’s still going to come tonight, don’t worry.”

For some reason that made Daisy frown. “I know Mama,” she said, with confidence that only a small child could have. “I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

“Oh Daisy,” Katniss felt something inside her chest twist, “you didn’t make me sad. I was just thinking about Aunty Prim that’s all.”

Daisy nodded. She’d heard about Aunty Prim often, Katniss had explained how she was Mama’s little sister that she loved very much that Mama missed her terribly and got sad thinking about her sometimes. 

“You love Aunty Prim,” Daisy said, in a matter of fact manner. 

“I do.” 

“Do you love me?” 

Katniss put the cloth down and stretched out her arms to her daughter, who eagerly walked into them. Daisy rested her head on Katniss’ shoulder and Katniss wrapped her arms around her, leaning her head onto her daughters, their black hair mingling. “I love you very much,” she told her. “Very very much.”

“Do you love Jesse?”

“Very much.”

“And Ellis?”

“Very much.”

There was a pause and Daisy continued, “Even though he cries all the time?”

A little giggle escaped from Katniss’ mouth. “Yes,” she said, “even though he cries all the time.”

“And do you love Daddy?”

“Very much.”

“Ok,” Daisy said and Katniss could feel her nodding. It was as though she had a check list of questions that she needed to make sure she had asked. 

“Mama?”

“Yes?”

“I love you very very much too.”

****

“This is it,” Peeta excitedly said to her. “Children in bed, the milk and cookies are prepared and presents are ready for distributing!”

“Don’t forget to take a bite from the cookies,” Katniss told him. “Or from the carrot, you know how they like to think the reindeer have eaten too.”

Peeta saluted her, “Gotcha!”

Katniss sat on their bed, her back resting against the headboard as she watched Peeta put the final touches on his outfit. The Santa hat had just gone on and he was just about to place the beard. 

“Hey,” she asked him, “could you come here a sec?”

“Sure,” and he shuffled over in oversized red pants. 

“I love you,” she told him and grabbed the red tunic yanking him towards her so that their mouths met. 

“I love you too,” he said, his eyes all soft. 

“I love our family,” she continued, “all of them. I love watching how they grow and develop their personalities and seeing what they like and don’t like. I love it. I even think I love how Haymitch loves us. I think I love Haymitch. He’s family too.”

Peeta looked perplexed, “Have you been on the eggnog? I mean confessing your love for our family sure, but I think this is the first time you have ever said Haymitch is family.”

“Well he is,” she shrugged. “Sometimes I think it can all be too much but then I think it will never be enough. If that makes sense?”

“Yeah,” Peeta reached out and tangled a lock of her hair in between his fingers, the dark strand wrapping around his pale skin. “I get you.”

They had a moment of quiet, Katniss sat on the bed in her nightclothes looking up at her husband while he glanced down at her in his Santa outfit. Her heart felt full in her chest. 

“You know,” she said coyly, “maybe later I could sit in Santa’s lap?”

A sly grin spread over Peeta’s face, his dimples appearing in his cheeks. “That could be arranged but I think Santa will want to know if you’ve been naughty.”

“Oh definitely,” she said, “definitely naughty.”

“I’ll put a word in at the North Pole.”

Katniss giggled and grabbed his tunic again to bring him down for one more kiss before he went on Santa duty. There was something she wanted to do and even though it wasn’t Christmas morning it seemed right to do it now. 

“I have a slightly early Christmas present for you,” she said to him and stood up to meet him face to face, hooking her arms around his neck. He looked at her with open, happy eyes that were just as blue as Daisy’s.

“I’m pregnant.”


End file.
